Dr Somen Bannerjee, the Co-Director of Public Health, presented a report on the White Paper on Public Health.

Public Health in England faced a number of challenges; these included:

• Increased life expectancy, but increasing ill health as people age
• Rise in obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
• Alcohol and substance misuse, and the consequences for others
• Poor mental health
• Infectious diseases and the environment
• Health inequalities

The Radical New Approach

• Public health resources would be ‘owned’ by the local population
• Resources would be ‘ringfenced’ from other services
• Public health would be professionally led and evidence based
• Protection would be strengthened against threats

• Public Health England would be established with national responsibility for research and commissioning. 

• Local authorities would take over some responsibilities and local Health & Wellbeing Boards would be established.

A sector stakeholder workshop is planned for 9^th March for key partners, such as Councillors and GPs representatives to explore the implications of the White Paper.

Issues included the unknown budget available for 2012/13, the move of Public Health to Local Authorities and the disentangling of commissioning.

Councillor Pavitt asked where Health Visitors were going to be placed. She also noted that Think was going to be replaced by ‘Health Watch’; local people needed to be involved from the start to shape the new services.

Dr Bannerjee said that Health Visitors would be commissioned.

Mr Rahi said that the Health & Wellbeing Board would consist of: the Mayor or Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets, 3 Directors (Public Health, Social Services and Children’s Services), but no Councillors, although the Board will have powers to co-opt members.  Once the PCT has gone, assessment will be done through the Council.

Councillor Saunders said there was no form of democratic involvement.  This meant that the Health Scrutiny Panel would become increasingly important as an accountability mechanism.  The Panel’s powers would need to be strengthened to hold the Health & Wellbeing Board to account.  It would be better if the Health & Wellbeing Board was more open.

Mr Burbidge said that the region containing Hackney, the City, Tower Hamlets and Newham would be all one.  It was important that local issues did not get lost, local people need a bigger say as the sector will have control.  Ms Cohen said the membership of the Health & Wellbeing Board was not finalised, and needed approval of the Council’s Cabinet.

Mr Burbidge said that the membership of the Health & Wellbeing Board was likely to be as stated for cost-saving reasons, so it was important that it dealt with local issues.

Dr Bannerjee did not agree that the membership of the Health & Wellbeing Board was already fixed.  The tenor of the White Paper was about doing things locally.  Directors of Public Health were needed at both sector and local levels.

Mr Burbidge said that there was confusion about what public health actually was and how services would be accessed.  A Board was needed to coordinate.

It was agreed that a response to the White Paper be coordinated.   Anyone with comments should send them in.

Action: Jebin Syeda, Scrutiny Policy Officer